1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an information processing device, a method and a record medium for implementing a status monitor.
2. Related Art
Various techniques for letting a computer receive a printer's status information (indicating the operating status, the “paper out” state, etc. of the printer) from the printer and display the received status information on the computer's display unit have been brought into practical use today. Software having this kind of function is generally called a “status monitor.” An example of such a technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2006-260187 (hereinafter, referred to as '187 publication).
A well-known printer capable of supplying its status information to a computer is designed to shift to a state for supplying the status information when a start signal (requesting the printer to start supplying the status information) is received from the computer.
In order to acquire the status information from such a printer, the status monitor first carries out the transmission of the start signal and thereafter repeats a status information acquisition process as needed.
Incidentally, among such computers equipped with a status monitor, those having a power management function (called “suspend function” or “hibernation function”) have become the mainstream.
A computer having the suspend function is capable of shifting from a normal state (hereinafter also referred to as a “first state”) to a power-saving state (hereinafter also referred to as a “second state”) which is close to the power-off state while keeping a variety of information on its own status, etc. in the normal operating state in its memory, and returning exactly to the status just before the shift to the power-saving state when necessary.
A computer having the hibernation function is capable of shifting to a power-saving state (second state) which is equivalent to the power-off state after storing a variety of information on its own status, etc. in the normal operating state (first state) in a storage device such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and returning exactly to the status just before the shift to the power-saving state when necessary by reading out the variety of information which has been stored in the storage device.
However, the use of such power-saving functions (suspend function, hibernation function) on a computer that has already activated the status monitor may cause the following problems.
Since the power-saving function is used generally when the user suspends or stops his/her use of the computer, the user is likely to turn OFF the power switch of the printer at the same time. When the user restarts the use of the computer and the printer, the computer is returned from the power-saving state to the normal operating state and the power switch of the printer can be turned ON again by the user.
In such cases, even when the aforementioned “start signal” from an information processing device (e.g. computer) had been received by the printer before its shutdown, the reception of the start signal becomes void since the status of the printer itself is initialized by the turning OFF and ON of the power.
Meanwhile, the computer is incapable of recognizing the change in the status of the printer because the printer was turned OFF and ON during the power-saving state of the computer. Further, since the status monitor operating on the computer returns to a state in which it recognizes that the start signal has already been transmitted to the printer, the status monitor thereafter tries to repeat the status information acquisition process as needed.
Therefore, the printer (recognizing that no start signal has been received) remains in a state in which it does not supply the status information to the computer even though the status information acquisition process is repeated by the computer (recognizing that the start signal has already been transmitted).
In such a state, even when some kind of error occurs to the printer, the computer is incapable of receiving the status information (indicating the error, etc.) from the printer and thus incapable of displaying the status information properly.